Before they tamper with your judgment
by TheRainCloud
Summary: Right as she enters the STEM Juli has an encounter with a terrifying entity from within it.


~written on January 24 2016 ~

* * *

It was darker than I had ever imagined I would live to see. The silence was solid and all I could feel was the cold floor beneath my bare feet. I tried to walk, but I was so scared that my legs didn't obey.

I felt a soft breeze blow at my hair and clothes. My dress flew up a little and I tried to hold it down in place to no avail. I was probably in a corridor, judging by the way the current flowed. The air smelled of disinfectant and medicine.

Something else was there too, moving closer to me. I could hear the sound of cloth in the breeze. I wasn't sure if it meant harm or not, and I didn't dare trying to move again. I could be a statue for all that mattered.

I couldn't see, but this other being knew where I was, it moved in my direction, the ruffling noise growing louder, feet without shoes barely sounding on the tiled floor.

The presence stood almost in front of me, and passed by my side, fabric against fabric, long robes touching my arm. I gasped and turned to the side, but the deep darkness still denied me vision.

I groped around, attempting to grab something with my hands, but they turned up empty.

A second time I felt it close, and a second time it brushed against me. This time I managed to pull on the clothes faintly, and heard a male voice chuckle. Whoever it was, he was amused by my disorientation.

"Who are you? Why are you doing this?" somehow I made my voice come out.

"Don't be so afraid, miss Kidman. Or should I call you just Juli?" said the voice. It was quiet albeit a little coarse. "Pretend you're making a new friend."

I didn't know what he meant.

The breeze became a cold wind, and I shivered, maybe less from it than from the fright I felt.

Making a new friend… the first question you always make is…

"What is your name, then?" My voice trembled more than I had expected.

The man walked around me a few more times before stopping in front of me, so close that I could feel the wind of his breath on my face. Yet the dark did not give in, and my eyes kept longing to devise an image.

"Clever, but… that depends on how you see me."

"I should call you something—"

"There is no need. We're the only ones here... Aren't we?" He came even closer. There was naked skin pressing against my breast and I felt the shape of his body through the thin fabric of my dress. His slow, steady steps pushed me back, forced my feet to move to keep me standing, until my back found a wall and I was squeezed between it and him.

His hands made their way onto my waist and my back, sliding slowly as if they'd waited a hundred years to do so, savoring every inch of my every curve. My muscles tensed up with the contact. His body was warmer than mine, as if he had a fever.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"I want to show you who I am before they have the opportunity to tamper with your judgment." He held me closer, scaring me even more. The heat of his flesh was greater than the cold howling wind could relieve.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't be naïve." His lips grazed on mine while he spoke, but I didn't have the guts to turn my face away. "You know what I'm talking about."

 _Mobius?_

I gave up on struggling to see him and closed my eyes. For a moment we stood there. _Any minute now_ , I thought. He was going to kiss me and something terrible would happen. I breathed in and his mouth touched mine.

At first I just let him, but then, feeling a certain insistence in his movements, I began to kiss him too. I moved my hands to his shoulders and clasped them as my lungs urged for air, as if I had been inhaling smoke, my skin burned and my eyes were filled with visions of fire and a girl in a red dress laughing at me and running. My heart throbbed furiously with an indescribable rage; a wild desire for revenge, raw sorrow and love like I had never felt before. I shrieked in despair. The girl called a name, and I almost couldn't concentrate enough to make it out from the chaos around me.

"Ruben… Ruben!" She said repeatedly, smiling, almost singing. Then her wails were mingling with mine.

During the eternity of a minute he showed me the broken recesses of his soul. I screamed as loud as I could at everything I saw, trying to free myself, but when it finished all I heard was the smallest smack of a kiss' end. When our lips parted I gasped and my chest heaved against his. I opened my eyes and felt hot tears roll down my cheeks in the gloom. It had hurt more than I could take. However, when it was over, every piece of me shook, but was intact.

He let go as if to let me catch my breath, or so I thought. But he started to go farther away every second, until I couldn't reach him anymore, until his presence was gone. As much as it made me suffer, I was confused and hypnotized, I wanted to see more, I didn't know what it meant…

"Wait, come back!" I called, but there was no response. Then it came to me. It was _his_ name. I'd asked, and he'd answered. "Ruben? Ruben!", I cried.

There was only silence. I slid down the cold wall, the icy wind now leaving my body chilled.


End file.
